26 March 2012

"Nobody loves Dick Whitman..."

The morning after the night before

I have a theory about Mad Men. If you don't pay attention to detail, that is innocuous details like lamps, jacket vents, '50s ties with '60s sport jackets, Megan's brilliant orange dress or Ronson versus Zippo, then you're probably not going to like it. Much.

And that's okay. Either it connects or it doesn't. It did with me despite the Chrysler 300 trunk load of crappy commercials every ten minutes. Roger sums up life nicely with the honest realization that, "The only thing worse than not getting what you want is somebody else getting it." Meanwhile, I was thinking how much I wanted a reviewer's episode sans commercials.

Yesterday's NY Times Metropolitan section contributed to "MM" details with details of New York's first high rise condo in 1966, the St Tropez, at 340 East 64th Street. A one bedroom started out at $29,241 and a three bedroom topped out at $79,811. That CPI's out at $219,000 and $600,000 respectively. Today, a one BR at the St Tropez lists for $939,000 while the 3 BR goes for $1.8 million.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that some of us are nostalgic. What surprises me, with two or three seasons left, is how nostalgic for Mad Men I am -- before it's even over.

Update: Megan's, 'Zou bisou bisou' popped upjust in time for Olive's comment. To find out what it all means click here.

The clothing and cars and lamps, that's the easy stuff. I pay attention to that broad and deep florescent lit office ceiling. Whereas other shows will crop out it's ugliness and film with low key side-lighting, I'm convinced Mad Men goes out of its way to frame it so as to show it from low angles whenever it can. It was a very bright era and florescent drop-ceilings were a very modern thing. It's subtle, but genius.

I'm nostalgic for Mad Men mostly because, at the age I was then, I had only a taste. A gauzy yet promising taste. Sadly that's all I ever got.

I guess I'm one of the few who just doesn't care for this show. My wife and I started with Season 1 from the library, and they lost me with Draper's "It's Toasted" genius. Lucky Strike had that slogan after WWI!. So much for the wonderful attention to detail that reviewers constantly crowed about, enough to get me to check out the show.

I was a very junior madman (late sixties early seventies). It's all true (more or less). The mower incident reminded me of when some guy got badly burned with liquid oxygen during a presentation to Air Products. We didn't get the business. Christmas parties with Deep Throat running on the video. Long lunches with objects of affection.